The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us

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This is why the campaign that accompanied the book is so crucial. While The Book of Trespass sets out the context of our wholesale exclusion from nature, the campaign at righttoroam.org.uk seeks to change the status quo. In the slightly bastardised words of Gerrard Winstanley, a land reformer from the 17th century, “words are great, but action is all”.

The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes, review: A gorgeously

The Book of Trespass is his first non-graphic book – though the text is punctuated by his marvellous illustrations, linocuts that bring to mind the Erics, Gill and Ravilious – and in it, he weaves several centuries of English history together with the stories of gypsies, witches, ramblers, migrants and campaigners, as well as his own adventures. Its sweep is vast. Among the places he trespasses, sometimes camping out overnight, are Highclere Castle in Hampshire, home of the Earl of Carnarvon and now best known as the real Downton Abbey; Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire, the seat of the dukes of Rutland; on the Sussex estate of Paul Dacre, the former editor of the Daily Mail; and on land, also in Sussex, owned by the property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten. He also kayaks on the River Kennet from Aldermaston, in west Berkshire, to the point near Reading where it meets the Thames – a journey that takes him through the estate owned by Richard Benyon who, until 2019, was the richest MP in Parliament (Benyon lives in Englefield House, which dates from 1558, and which passed to his family by marriage in the 18th century; some of their money was made via the East India Company, too). Seeks to challenge and expose the mesmerising power that landownership exerts on this country, and to show how we can challenge its presumptions . . . The Book of Trespass is massively researched but lightly delivered, a remarkable and truly radical work, loaded with resonant truths and stunningly illustrated by the author Weaving together the stories of poachers, vagabonds, gypsies, witches, hippies, ravers, ramblers, migrants and protestors, and charting acts of civil disobedience that challenge orthodox power at its heart, The Book of Trespass will transform the way you see the land. Basildon Park house in west Berkshire is set amid 400 acres of historic parkland – most of which is private territory. Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer Exhilarating . . . A gorgeously written, deeply researched and merrily provocative tour of English landscape, history and culture

So what happens next? “We want to engage all the people who are already sold on access – the fathers and mothers, the ramblers, climbers and kayakers – and tell them that something is happening, and get them to join us. Then we need to persuade all the people who don’t have much access to land why their lives would be improved if they did. And then, we need to lobby MPs.” His book, he believes, is the beginning of something, not the end. “We will say to people: come trespassing with us!” He grins. “Our hashtag will be #extremelynonviolentdirectaction. There’ll be animal masks and botany, picnics and poetry. But if someone asks us to leave, that’s exactly what we’ll do.” But there is another dimension to trespass that runs deep beneath the scaffold of the law. ‘Trespass’ is one of the most charged words in the English language. For such a small legal infraction, the notion of crossing a fence line, wall or invisible boundary is wrapped in a moral stigma that runs to the heart of English political and civil life. Many of our liberties and the restrictions on them are expressed in terms of land, parameters and property, so much so that it is hard to tell which is a metaphor for the other. Hayes also digs into the history of land ownership in England. Crucially, he links subjection overseas to servitude at home. Land became “commodity alone”, “partitioned from the web of social ties” that truly gives it value.

The Book of Trespass - Bloomsbury Publishing The Book of Trespass - Bloomsbury Publishing

I became used to the various reactions of landowners, or their representatives, veering from the snidely patronising to the outright aggressive, but sensed that because I had caused no damage, left no litter, this all seemed strangely incongruous to what I was actually doing. He covers a myriad of topics such as fox hunting, the church, grouse moors, the Roma people and slavery. As befits The Book of Trespass, it starts with the infamous Kinder Scout trespass in the 30s - a good jumping off point for a story about how the common man's right to the use of land has eroded over time to the narrow strip of a right of way. He's not so much angered as deeply saddened by how the land of this beautiful country is owned and managed by the very few for their own personal profit. We are duped into accepting this by the media magnates, politicians and landed gentry whose own vested interests are being protected by the status quo, and yet his argument, eloquently stated, is that this model of land ownership is the very root of social inequality and that greater access to land benefits everyone. His one attempt at trying to enter a dialogue with a seriously rich landowner to try to see another point of view fails - but are we as much to blame for our complicit obedience to sign and fence? A meditation on the fraught and complex relationship between land, politics and power, this is England through the eyes of a trespasser. This isn’t the politics of envy. All we’re asking is that the lines between us and the land are made more permeable Well this started off well with a subject that's close to my heart, the ultra-wealthy hell bent on keeping us peasants out of their precious lands.The book ends with a call to extend the Countryside and Rights of Way Act in England, expanding our Right to Roam , no matter who owns the land. This is obviously a worthwhile endeavour as long as it is a part of a much wider movement that also looks to challenge the power of the vested landed interests of this country, dismantle the lines that divide us and repair the deep wounds those lines have caused. The Book of Trespass is a beautiful, powerful call to know our many histories, the struggles that have gone before, and offers a powerful awakening from the spell of ‘ownership’. Read it, let it galvanise you. A right to roam modelled on the many other successful examples, which balance community, environment and landowners’ needs and right Please bear in mind we all work part time and have limited capacity to respond to enquiries outside our core areas of work. Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.